You're at the front-porch entrance area (root-section) of the TROSTing.org
web site. TROSTing.org is a hub for collaborative
development and application of TROST frameworks. TROSTing is an evolutionary approach to raising open-system trustworthiness.

The untrustworthiness and unreliability of software systems is an
everyday complaint. TROSTing and TROST projects are
established to look at this state of affairs in a different way. We
want to look at trust and trustworthiness as the foundation on which all
else rests. Our question is not what the barriers are. Instead,
we ask this:

How can we be reliable at delivering open-systems components with
demonstrable trustworthiness?

After that, how do we continuously strive for achieving and
sustaining new levels of trustworthiness?

1.1.1 Suppose that you are committed to producing trustworthy software
systems. You're completely willing to do everything in your power
to demonstrate that you had done that and that people would know it.
What would you do? What would you provide for others to be able
confirm that trustworthiness and its assurance over time?

1.1.2 Suppose you want to integrate components into your own systems
in a way that the result is trustworthy. How do you assure that
you've accomplished that? What do you require of component suppliers
to be able to confirm that? How do you engage suppliers in a way that
empowers their sustaining you in having trustworthy system operations?

1.1.3 What are the patterns of ongoing engagement by which
trustworthiness is continuously created, demonstrated, repaired, and
improved?

1.1.4 This exploration requires us to be clear about such terms as
trust, trustworthiness, reliability, dependability, security, and safety.
With that background we are going to formulate a framework that proceeds
from high-level context to ordinary, day-to-day practices that foster
trustworthiness. At the current early stage, it looks like this:

* We look at trust as a relationship in which people are voluntarily
engaged and involved.
*
The test of trust is how the failing party remedies the breach.
*
The test of trustworthiness is how breach is mitigated and repair is assured.

* Artifacts are trustworthy only to the extent that they are
instruments of a trusted engagement.
*
There are trust engagements at all levels - trust is fractal, diffuse, and
organic.
*
Trust flows downward from the highest levels of engagement.
*
Trustworthiness is built upward from the lowest, most menial levels.

* The component is ODMref 1.0 the Reference
Implementation of an Open Document Management API (ODMA) Document-Management System integration.
* The TROST Pilot provides a narrow, specific worked case as part of
calibration of what can be done to establish trustworthiness in a simple,
mundane software product.
* Assessment of the TROST Pilot provides course-correction and a basis for
expanding TROST coverage to new areas.

* In undertaking the TROST Pilot, it's become clear that TROST
must be in place at the very beginning of the TROST Pilot, before the
development and delivery of any functionality at all.
* We are in the delicate situation of needing some reliable level of TROST
in the development of TROSTing and the TROST Pilot themselves.

* This is the TROST Bootstrap problem. It also fits into
risk-management concerns for having an early result to appraise.
* The TROST Bootstrap is defined to be the first one or two "spirals" of
the TROST Pilot development.
* The Bootstrap, in addition to providing a minimum foundation of TROST,
It introduces a skeletal "assembly-line" that can be confirmed to have a
trustworthy basic level of TROSTing.

* The Bootstrap is refined by progressive enhancements to spiral
up through the development, construction, and deployment of the full TROST
Pilot.

We're in the construction and initial-engagement stage for development of
the site and some pilot bootstrapping demonstration of framework approaches.
Community participation is fostered by use of a SourceForge project for
discussion, review and collaboration. The TROST-discuss email discussion
list is now operating there, with additional facilities to be
activated as material becomes available to share and discuss.

At this point, TROSTing.org consists mainly of initial scaffolding with some content structure here and
there. Here's what there is so far:

A lot of this material was scavenged from other sites. The only
parts customized for this site are those that were needed immediately to
support construction of other parts of the site. This
front-porch has its own construction zone,
as do some of the other sections.

There is an initial catalog and templates for adding new notes to the
site. Some initial drafts are available. It's pretty
bottom-up right now. This will become the largest single section
of the site.

2.5Project Office section that organizes all
project information about TROST development

Software-engineering principles are being applied, with the usual
difficulties that brings to working solo. Just the same, we
formalize the work in terms of projects and mini-projects. All of
the project-level documentation and status is captured here.
Materials that preceded creation of this site will be back-filled onto
the site as we move ahead.

This will be a separate description, with index.htm used exclusively for
Construction Structure. This page is repaved to fit with the current
repaving project. Later it will be transformed to be a content page
served from an info folio.

The convention throughout this site is to use section numbering in a
liberal way and have the section numbers be permalinks to those sections (or
paragraphs). This way, people can link and point to specific sections
in feedback, comments, and discussion.

The site consists of scaffolding, exposed girders, tarp-covered stacks
of materials, and some rickety boards across puddles on the excavated earth.
There is a hastily-erected construction shack
and some strings of bare bulbs where the construction team is laying out
work and hammering forms for a durableproject officethat will house the prime contractor's architectural and engineering team.
A board fence along the site perimeter carries initial
notices about the construction. One sign provides contact information. A knothole in the fence reveals
shadowy movement, rumbling equipment, and the whine of a rotary saw.
Arc-welder sparks splash out from the darkness of the freshly-prepared
foundation. The pre-dawn sky dimly silhouettes an array of jutting pilings and
projecting beams, as if preventing the flight of a sky-pointed crane atop one corner's
girders.